Tsawwassen's Paul Kloschinsky is happy to be a new member of the League of Canadian Poets.

"It's very gratifying to be recognized ... as a legitimate Canadian poet. It certainly makes up for all the hard work and years of trying. It felt really good."

The group, "a non-profit arts service organization, is the national association of professional publishing and spoken word poets in Canada," its website states.

A committee made up of existing members assesses membership applications. The league was founded in 1966 by a group of five poets and now has almost 600 members.

Kloschinsky, who found out he was accepted as a full member a few months ago, says he looks at the membership as a big achievement.

"It's a pretty good club to be in," he says.

Kloschinsky, 46, had his first book, A Time to Cry, published in 2006 and followed that up with two releases in 2007.

He's working on a fourth collection, titled Vice and Virtue, that will cover a range of topics, including reason, enlightenment and the passing of his father.

"The first one was about my period of problems but now, it's whatever I'm thinking about; a whole bunch of different things."

A Time to Cry is described as a "sincere, heartfelt account of mental health problems and romantic failure" while Kloschinsky's second book, Deliverance, is a "collection of poems on personal recovery," his website states.

Kloschinsky plans to illustrate Vice and Virtue with a selection of his own photography and drawings. He estimates it will be released in the next six months to a year.

The Tsawwassenite, who's originally from Saskatchewan, says he's been writing poetry for about 20 years and that it's a craft "you can always keep learning."

He mentions seeing a documentary on the late Canadian poet Al Purdy as something that helped him get started.

"I love language and words and the different things you can do with them, playing with them and expressing things."

Besides poetry and photography, Kloschinsky is also a songwriter and musician. His debut album, titled Woodlands, was released last year.

The folk-rock album contains Wearin' Blue, a track that won Kloschinsky a 2007 MusicAid award for Best Canadian Songwriter.

Kloschinsky says he's happy with the way the debut effort turned out. It's available on iTunes and can be heard on Internet radio stations like Jango.

He hasn't done any live performances as of yet but says he may head into downtown Vancouver to play at some open mic venues. He's currently writing and recording new songs for a follow up effort.

He doesn't mind juggling his poetry, music and photography work.

"I like it. If you get a little stale at something, you can leave it, go to something else and you're fresh. When that runs out you can come back to the other one and you get a bit better. I find that if you leave something for a while, you get a bit better at it since you come back fresher."

Visit www.kloschinsky.com for samples of his work or more information.